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Sakmongkol ak 47

ariff.sabri@gmail.com

Friday, 20 March 2009

Delegates from Kelantan to the UMNO General Assembly next week may table a resolution for the party to appoint Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as UMNO Adviser and Tun Daim Zainuddin as the National Economic Advisor to help us weather the global economic meltdown.

TDM on perception: - He also commented on perception that Najib was corrupt."I'm not talking about what people believe. A lot of people believe about something but there is no legal stand taken on whether Najib is corrupt or not."

As to the first piece of news, my reaction was: are we Malaysians masochists? These refer to people who liked to inflict pain upon themselves. It is also a sign of immaturity. Hence placed in a political context- the resolution said to be thought of by some delegates from Kelantan (?)Impute the following; UMNO people like to self inflict pain believing the suffering is a form of self gratification and be we UMNO people are actually politically immature.

The period in Malaysian politics under the watch of TDM and TDZ is arguably the golden age of Malaysian politics and economics. I say arguably, because people can still point to the many business excesses associated with TDZ and by reason of linkages, TDM. Perhaps those business and corporate excesses benefited from lack of forensic scrutiny as is presently prevalent. Then, that would of course imply, the period associated with TDM and TDZ was less open than it is now.

The pain I am referring to is however not of the above paragraph. The pain I am talking of is about our inability and political immaturity to rise to the occasion and believing in our ability and capacity that we can manage this on our own. It takes leadership, resolve, dedication and hard work. Our present social and political meltdown now can never be solved by sub-contracting it to others. The pain I am referring is our indulgence to subsist on political subsidy, an over indulgence which has led to our own all round impotence. Because of this self defeatist attitude, we think we need a political Viagra in the form of TDM and TDZ.

Apa sudah jadi to the Malay spirit? Faced with a calamity, we seem to have lost our wits and presence of mind. We want the easy way out by asking other people do the job for us. That is an attitude of a people living on subsidy and opting to remain as freeloaders for the rest of our lives. I am saddened by the attitude of this particular Kelantan delegate for not having faith in our present leadership's ability to deal with our situation.

That was why; I have advocated that we break from the political vicious cycle and the mental claptrap, mind bondage and straightjacket to usher in an UMNO leadership that is not overwhelmed by conservative thinking.

For that is what the subconscious wish which the Kelantan delegate represents. It is a proposition that blindly accepts that those who are able to this particular task of leadership must necessarily be from a select and elite group. This is a classic call for the return of ascriptive norms in our thinking.

That people continue to be evaluated in terms of who they are, that certain tasks such as leadership are only able to be carried out by particular team of people. My point is, if TDM and TDZ were able to do what they did without having to fall back to ascribed status kind of thinking, we CAN also do it.

As to the second piece of news, in the matter of perception, as the say in legal terms, res ipsa loquitur. It is indeed personal to holder.

13
comments:

Dato'True to form, Kelantan UMNO is immature and lacking in good leaders. Led by has beens who is trying to find a place should there be a leadership change at Federal level.As such, UMNO in Kelantan will play the opposition role for a long time to come.

Kudos to Dato' Sak once again for putting into words what people feel but are unable or too afraid to say.

I would like to add a bit about the 'golden age of Malaysia politics'. If we take TDZ's first stint as FM and TDM as the PM at that time, many feel nostalgic about it because a) the Economy was growing between 7-8% a yearb) Privatisation binge brought about a lot of easy moneyc) UMNO was in complete control and since people were happy, the opposition stood no chance.

However the world in 2009 is a very different place. The hot capital that flowed into Malaysia is no longer here, (it was parked in the West and China and got blown up in Wall Street) but more importantly the world is a much more competitve place right now, and Malaysia is facing the squeeze of being yet another undifferentiated ASEAN economy (you know 'economic rent' form of business model). For the common folk, the single biggest source of frustration actually is the inflation rate that pushed middle class into borderline poverty. And the sad thing is people do not see a way out with BN/UMNO so they rebel. And BN/UMNO when they see the people rebel use the full force of Government, Police and Judiciary to crush the rebel leaders (DSAI, Hindraf, et. al). (At no point am I justifying anything here just stating what I see as facts)

Anon at 10:27 perhaps presents the best case, if a case does exist for reverting back to the old policy. Quite simply put, having put the faith in Oxbridge, Malaysia still floundered.

If that is an indictment and condemnation of 4th floor, I agree 100%, but lets hear the 2nd part of the rebuttal. In 1981, when the young Dr M took over, Malaysia entered 2 periods of extreme economic anxiety in 1984 (tin market crash) and 1987 when Wall Street collapsed. But things turned around in 1991 onwards but that also coincided with Tun having unprecendeted power after having ousted all the naysayers from UMNO. Power was concentrated, he had about 10 years on the job training and then we entered into Malaysia's so called Golden Era.

So my point is, charting a successful course for Malaysia is not as simple as flicking a switch. Sometimes we may have the right person, but at the wrong time, hence the earlier malaise. So perhaps instead of 10 years, it takes him maybe 5 years, and in that the leader learns to reconcile theory to practise, get the right people on board and get the wrong people offboard. Can I logically prove this? Of course not, but could you logically prove that the great TDM was going to turn out to be the leader he is known to all on the night (at the time the lights went out) during the 1987 UMNO Presidential election?

Since this posting also touches on perception, here is a list of possible perceptions arising from the Disciplinary Board's decision (Pick any one or more and see if anything can be done about them) -

1. The Board does not fight money politics with gusto. UMNO members protested, MACC passed the ball back, the Board merely took token action, did selective presecution.2. Lawyers that Ku Din and Rais are, the decision the Board made, the punishment, the stabbing analogy etc show rusty knowledge of the law and criminal procedure. 3. No transparency in Ku Din's "court".4. Ku Din is too old and too gentlemanly to be a fighter against money politics. 5. He is beholden to others. Board decisions are largely based on political considerations. 6. Others on the Board adopt the respect for elders' stand, right or wrong. They may also have vested interests.7. The Secretariat staff who service the Board have been subjected to bribery, for UMNO is corrupt to the core.8. Papers, files, dvds presumably get misplaced, evidence disappearing. Hence, from 900 complaints, only 15 have been acted by the Board.9. Delegates to the coming Assembly would hardly bother about money politics and corruption issues.10.There will be no special discussion on these issues at anyUMNO Assembly. They cannot face one another if discussed.11. Najib is not likely to take drastic action against money politics and corruption.12. People in glass houses do not throw stones at one another.13. The filthy (literally) rich will get richer and more powerful, the poor poorer and suffering.14. UMNO will suffer bigger losses in PRU13 and the country will consequently face a worse state of affairs.

Are there many of you who perceive otherwise? With so much money politics and pervasive corruption, what can be done about the above? I would love to hear your views.

I sometimes wish we have a leader with "concentrated power" (to borrow our friend's words, above)but for the attendant risk of autocratic excesses far more serious than those brought about by auto-piloting.

Dato',TDM has set his sight on Najib to be the next PM since his days of being PM. Unfortunately there is AAB in his way and AAB has his own mind then perhaps due to the advice of his boys. Now everything is in place for Najib to take over as PM and continue the legacy of TDM paving the way for MM to step in later. Do we want to go back to TDM's era? No, not for me or my children and their children. TDM has had his chnce to bring Malaysia forward at great cost to the nation. It is now time to correct all the wrongs that he did to the nation which AAB has failed miserably to do anything despite all the promises. Najib as PM will only perpetuate more wrongs.

But what is the alternative? What can be done now that Najib has got all the nominations except one?

All these bloody attempts at dynasty creation. An indirect route by TDM. Ending up with half- past six fellows in power. He blunted all efforts by TRH, TMH and erstwhole others (forget the unprincipled DSAI), to possible succession and ruled for 22 years with money politics, cronyism, etc. Most of the problems we are facing now started from his time.

TRH, TMH would not do what he wanted if they were to succeed him. Unfortunately, AAB also didn't. Now we are paying the price.

No, I don't want TDM and TDZ back, not what they did regarding UMBC, Pernas, Petronas, Minister of Finance Inc, etc. I'm now flabbergasted as to what the alternative can be. With the problems portrayed by Anon on UMNO Lembaga Disiplin above, I see a gloomy future for all of us. Sorry for being a harbinger of unhappy news. I wish somebody can bring happy news. Especially from the coming General Assembly.